Fleet Management

Consumer Confidence Falling

Consumers don’t feel too good about the American economy, despite predictions by some economists that things will soon turn around.

Yesterday, Conference Board, a New York-based private business research group, reported its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 82.2 in November after a downwardly revised 85.3 in October. The November figure is the lowest level in seven years.The Board says the big thing on consumers’ minds right now is rising unemployment and continuing layoffs, noting a turnaround in confidence isn’t expected until next year.The Conference Board also reported it Present Situation Index, which measures consumers' views of the current economy, fell from a revised 107.3 in October to 93.5 in November. In contrast, consumers’ views of how they view the economy down the road are looking up, with the Expectations Index, which measures the outlook for the next six months, increasing from a revised 70.7 in October to 74.6 in November.This news about consumer confidence in the economy follows news on Monday that the U.S. has “officially” been a recession since March. The National Bureau of Economic Research, a panel of six respected academic economists, said the country has been enduring slow growth for more than a year, but they predict the current downturn will be short and mild, provided there are not any more terrorist attacks on the United States. They said the events of Sept. 11 only helped push the U.S. into a full blown recession.